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Was the Subaru BRAT too weird for its own good?

Despite a 16-year run, Subaru's compact pickup is nearly extinct now

August 25, 2017

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Timing. The one thing the Subaru BRAT (Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter) had was timing. It landed on our shores in 1978 right as a fresh energy crisis was crunching. Buyers were on the lookout for a small, workaday pickup that returned decent gas mileage; this was Subaru's answer, to compete with the Ford Courier, Chevrolet LUV and other compact trucklets. It landed as the V8- and I6-powered Ford Ranchero and Chevrolet El Camino were getting long in the tooth and with flat four power it undercut them both in efficiency and price.

All BRATs came with all-wheel drive (developed from the Leone station wagon) but it's trick piece was the button that switched AWD on and off, hence the "bi-drive" wording in the name. The BRAT was produced from 1978 to, surprisingly, 1994, though only imported to the United States through 1987.

The BRAT used the same AWD system as the Subaru Leone.

Only in North America did the BRAT come with two rear-facing jump seats in the back. That allowed it to sneak in as a passenger vehicle for tax purposes as opposed to a pickup, saving itself the "chicken tax" on light-duty imported trucks.

The BRAT came with one engine at launch, a 1.6-liter flat four mated to either a four-speed manual or three-speed automatic transmission. Two trim levels were offered, DL and GL. The GL had four headlights, the the DL had two. In 1981 displacement was raised to 1.8 liters while power grew from 67 hp to a whopping 73. In 1983 an optional turbo engine was offered with 93 angry Japanese ponies. Early models had a single-range transfer case; later models came with a dual-range unit. The strange Subaru Baja eventually came to continue the legacy, but only 30,000 were sold in the four years (2003-2006) it was produced.

The Gipper owned a BRAT that he kept at his ranch, and so did Rex (Diedrich Bader) from "Napoleon Dynamite" so they can't be all bad.

There's currently ONE on sale at eBay Motors, just one. It could be yours in two days -- it currently it stands at $3,550. Buy! Buy! Buy!